10D lost it's LCD... shuts down

[douglas_price]

I was at the beach, no sand, and didn't get any water on it, finishing up a

portrait session when suddenly my LCD cut to white and the camera shut off.

Whenever the camera tries to fire up the LCD it goes white and the camera dies.

I tried it with the video out cable to a TV and the camera fires, writes,

displays menu, etc, but no dice on the LCD.

 

I already tried leaving the batteries (the biggun and the button cell) and lens

off overnight.

 

Basically what it looks like is the LCD is getting power, the backlight turns on

(thus the white screen) but no data.

 

I guess I could grab my meter and pretend I'm shooting film, but I do so like my

histograms.

 

Any thoughts?

[cabbiinc]

Pull all the batteries again for 10 minutes. With the batt.s still out turn on the camera, leave it on far a minute. Shut off and put the batts back in and try it.

 

This probably wont work for you but it sometimes works on the point and shoots. Give Canon a call. They will have you send it in but wont do the repairs until they have a look and contact you to see if its worth it. You can refuse and they will return it only paying the shipping cost.

[sarah_fox]

Dunno... Obviously, as you say, the backlight has power, but the LCD layer is dead. I doubt the beach had anything to do with it. It might be a faulty connection, or it might be a dead panel. It might not be worth the (probably small) expense of a repair, as, you can get another one quite cheaply on Ebay. However, you migh be able to open up the camera yourself and clean/jiggle connections. That might bring the LCD back to life.

[cabbiinc]

A second thought is that you might have some condensation in your camera. Pull the batteries again and leave the lens off, open all the doors on the camera that it has and let it dry out completely. Maybe even grab a scilica bag from that last pair of shoes that you bought and put it in a box with it. A day should tell you wether or not this will work.

[douglas_price]

Dan, condensation is possible, it was in the air conditioned car, then out into warm moist air, however that was about 40 minutes before the problems started. I'll try that for about 24 hours.

 

Sarah, yeah, given it's age I would most likely be looking at replacing it or poking around inside myself rather than sending it to Canon. If further airing out doesn't do anything I'll look for a disassembly guide.

[hjoseph7]

Maybe it's time for a 40D which has better weather seals. I know my Canon Ellan II use to freak out whenver I tried taking picture anywhere near a beach.

[mark u]

Replacing the LCD is a labour intensive repair, so it may make more sense to replace the camera given the second hand value of a 10D these days unless you feel you have the necessary skills to do it yourself. It may also give you an excuse to upgrade.

[alan_myers]

Hi Douglas,

 

This sounds very much like an internal condensation problem, if the camera was taken from a cool location to a hot, humid one. A small short in the electronics can cause symptoms like you are seeing.

 

I agree with other suggestions, remove all the batteries (including the little memory batt), set the camera out to dry for a while. Leave the CF door open, remove any battery grip, pop up the flash... just might not want to leave it sitting without a lens on it, so use the body cap.

 

Give it at least 24 hours in a fairly dry environment. Longer is better. It might come back to life.

[sarah_fox]

Yeah, on second thought I remember living in Houston back when I wore glasses. It always drove me nuts when I stepped out from an airconditioned car and couldn't see for 30 sec while my glasses fogged up. It might indeed be condensation.

 

Question: Were you using a tele-zoom at the time, sucking large amounts of warm, moist air in and out? If so, that could indeed be the problem. If, on the other hand, you were using something like a 50mm prime, I would bet you wouldn't have drawn enough moist aiir to do any harm.

[douglas_price]

I was using a zoom at the time, 24-70mm sigma, seems to get rather cavernous inside at 70. This may indeed be the problem. It's been sitting now since it was first suggested to air it out. I will try it out tomorrow.

 

I guess now I've just to save my pennies for a 40D or a 5D, but wonder if, without weather sealing these would be just as susceptible. Maybe the camera just needs to ride in the trunk instead of with me. I always bagged my cameras coming in during the winter, it seems so much overkill to do the same in the summer.

 

Thank you all for your kind suggestions. We'll see tomorrow what happens.

[sarah_fox]

Douglas, even a 1 series camera, with all its weather seals, would be just as susceptible as your 10D. Zooming a lens without air entering or leaving the camera would be physically impossible, as you would otherwise be fighting a pocket of pressure/vacuum. The best approach is probably the trunk, as you suggest. Alternatively, you can keep your gear in a foam-filled case, which would insulate pretty well. The conventional wisdom is that you should have your camera/lens in a zip-lock bag when moving from a cool environment to a warm/humid one, and you shouldn't remove the equipment from the bag until it comes up to temperature. Of course that could take a while.

 

I had another thought/question: If your camera was cold enough to condense the outside air, your lens would have been that cold too. Did you notice any condensation on the optics, which would have obviously made it difficult to see through the viewfinder? I would think the optics would stay cold far longer than the LCD panel, which is, after all, on the outer surface of the camera, and which would also heat up more rapidly from the sun on the black case.

 

Please let us know what happens. This is indeed an interesting problem, and it would be good to know if internal condensation can be this bad a problem.

[douglas_price]

Well, after a couple days airing out it was still no better. I put in a fresh battery and it now emits a whine, like a cap charging. I don't think it's coming back.